Final Fantasy XII OC Story
by Fran1993
Summary: After waking up in the sewers below Rabanastre, Stella quickly found herself involved on a journey she never thought possible to make. But what can one do, when you become friends with a someone like Vaan?
1. Chapter 1 Darkness

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 1: Darkness.

Darkness. That was the last thing I could remember. I couldn't even recall falling asleep, let alone anything before that.. Where was I? I sat up and let out a small groan as I started to lean on my elbows. It took some time to let my eyes adjust to the dark lighting in this place, but when they did, I was finaly free to take look around. From my point of view on the floor, I seemed to be in some sort of mideaval sewer. I sat in the middle of a pathway next to a small river of water, and there was dust all around me. How long had I been here? I didnt know. I stood up and dusted myself off, trying to figure out what to do. I cant just stay out here, so I guess its time for some exploring. There were two options, left or right. The right side of me was blocked by a gate, and I ofcourse had no keys, so left it was. As I started walking trough the sewers, I noticed for the first time the amount of vermin in this place. But then again what could you really expect here? I walked up a couple of stairs and around a few cornors, until I reached a small rusty copper gate. Behind them was a stairway with alot of light coming from it. Freedom was only a few feet away! Time to get my lockpicking skills going..

Ugh.. This is imposible! No matter what I tried, the gate wouldnt open. I let myself slide down one of the nearby walls and closed my eyes. What should I do now? I thought to myself for a few minutes, but then it hit me. I could try and climb over it. It wasnt such a large gate anyway. I stood up and started my climb, and just when I swinged my right legg over the top, I lost my balance and fell down. I rubbed my head a few times, then opened my eyes. At least I made it to the other side! I cheered to myself, and started running my way up the stairs, hoping i was on the right track. Once I finaly reached the top of the stairs, I turned around the corner to inspect the new area I was in. I was standing on a large balcony with stairs down on both sides of it. On the other side of the room, there was another balcony identical to this was, exept for the pair of stairs leading up to the left of it. That must be my way out! I walked over to one of the stairs, but quickly ran back when I heard someone aproach. Why now? I was so close to freedom.. I sighed to myself and carefully crawled over to the balcony's edge and peeked over it. Below me, in a small clearing of water, there was a teenage boy fighting off some rats. Who was he? Was he a local? I couldnt really tell. The boy was tanned and had short unruly blonde hair with bright blue eyes below them. He wore a grey vest with a green gem on the back. His pants were also grey, just as his boots. The only thing giving his outfit color was the bright red stash around his waist. He seemed a like he was having a good time, until another boy on the other balcony disturbed him. I decided to hide behind the nearby pillar, and eavesdropped on their convresation. "Vaan! Hurry it up or they'll find us!"  
"I know, I know! Just a little more. You keep an eye out for me up there, Kytes." I smirked. It seems like I wasn't the only one who wasnt supposed to be here. Once "Vaan" cleared the room of all the rats, I decided to look down again. But to my suprise, I found him to be gone. I stood up and leaned further down, where did he go? "Ehm.. Excuse me?"  
"Aaah!" I was scared half to dead when I felt someone tap my shoulder, but I calmed down once I saw it was the boy. I smiled to myself, looks like I found him.. "Sorry, I didnt mean to scare you! I was just curious, you see.. There arent many people that know of this place. How did you get here?" Could I trust this Vaan? He could help me get out of here.. Maybe. "I came in from the other side of the sewers. You see, Im kind of lost."  
"Oh, you dont have to worry then. Ill help you out, ehm.."  
"Stella." I held out my hand for him to take, which he did. "Pleased to meet you, Im Vaan." Vaan pointed at his chest with his thumb when spoke out his name. I smiled, and started following Vaan down into the clearing. Once we reached the other balcony, I could see the other boy run up to us. This young boy had cheeck length brown hair with brown eyes to match. He wore a white shirt with a green vest, and brown shorts with sandals. I asumed this was the boy Vaan was talking to earlyer. "Kytes, slow down or you'll run into our guest here."  
"Oops! Sorry, Vaan! I just wanted to know how the rest of your training went?"  
"It went just fine. I finished off all the rats lurking about in no time."  
"Wow, Vaan! So you got 'em all by yourself, huh? I guess I know who to call when something big comes along." I chuckled at the boys words and smiled when I saw Vaan trying to make up a good response. "Hey, it's good practice for the desert. I'm ready for anything now." Desert? A sewer in a desert? I didnt think so, I guess there must be one located nearby. "But that's enough for today. You should get back to Migelo's place, Kytes. Aren't you running errands for him?"  
"Oops! Heh. Totally forgot. But.. you should come, Vaan. He's busy today. Might have some work for you to do, too." As we walked up a pair of stairs, Vaan seemed to chuckle at the thought of work and responded while pointing his thumb towards me. "I've got other ehm.. "work" to do. Hey, lock this place up for me, will you? If Migelo finds out we've been down here, He'll tan our hides."

* * *

A/N: That was Chapter 1. Let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2 The Empire

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 2: The Empire.

"Soo, Vaan. Who is this Migelo you were talking about?" After having his little conversation, Kytes went on ahead, leaving me to follow Vaan out of the sewers. During our walk, I decided to ask him some questions, about the things I heard. "Migelo? He's a friend of ours that owns a shop in Rabanastre. Some of the orphaned children around here get to do errands for him in exchange for food and money. He's a good guy." Orphan's? Rabanastre? Didn't sound like any place I would want to be. "Are there many orphan's in Rabanastre?"  
"Yeah. Its kind of sad really, most of our parents died because of the plague, but some of them were killed by the Empire.." A plague, the Empire.. I didnt know what to think of all that, so I decided to stay silent for a while until we reached a small storage house on top of the stairs. I heard Vaan close the door behind me and saw him trying to open another door on the other side of the room. While I was waiting, I stared into a cherry wood mirror next to me. I wiped off some of the dust from the mirrors surface, and looked at myself. My long, brown curls seemed to be a little dishelved and out of place, but that was probably because of the dampness in the sewer. I pushed some of my hairs out of my face and revealed my sea green eyes and ivory white skin. I gues I hadnt been out in the sun for quite a while, but then again, the white outfit didnt help much either. I wore a long sleeved white shirt that became wider as it reached the ends of my sleeves. Underneath that I wore a white pair of jeans, knee high white boots and a white belt with a golden rose buckle. I felt kind of silly for looking at myself that long, and decided to walk over to Vaan, who just opened the door.

The place we entered after Vaan locked up the storage house, didnt exactly look great. According to Vaan, some of the people were not allowed back up in the city, so they piled them all up here. The slums of the city, aka Lowtown. The air around me was still quite damp, and the area was really crowded. There was a huge roof above us, which was aparantly the real city of Rabanastre. As I walked after Vaan trough the streets, I heard some people talking about Migelo. It seemed like this Migelo was arranging a huge buffet for the new Consul of the city. Seemed like a nice idea, if only normal people would have been allowed to go too. "That's where we're headed. Trough here." Vaan pointed at a huge gear-like wheel before us. At first look, it didn't seem to be able to roll open, but when it did I couldn't help but be impressed. I smiled to myself, I don't think I've ever seen doors roll open for me before. After walking up the few staircases behind the rolling door, we had reached the upper levels of the city. While Vaan closed the gate behind us, I looked up to the sky and was almost blinded by the amount of light! This place was so different from the slums. The sun was shining brightly up here, and the people actually seemed happy. The buildings were tall and many, and they had a sandy brown color. But something that caught my attention were the large black with red flags that hung all over the place. "Well, we're here. This is Rabanastre. What do you think?"  
"The city looks pretty good up here. But I do have one question.. What are all the flags for?"  
"The Empire put 'em up here. To show who's the boss around here." The Empire again. They didn't seem like a friendly faction to me. When I asked Vaan about them, he shrugged and told me I would find out soon enough. Thats fine to me. I decided be be silent for a while and followed Vaan as he made his way over to Migelo's place.

Once we reached the shop Migelo owned, Migelo's sundries, I could see a teenage girl speaking to a weird lizard standing before the shop's sign. "Vaan! Vaan, wait!" I pulled Vaan back, trying to get him to look at me. "What's up?" I nervously thought over my words and spoke up. "Ehrm.. Why is that girl over there talking to a lizard?" After hearing my words, Vaan burst out into laughter, but once his laughter died down he looked up to my face and realized that I was being serious. "Oh.. You really don't know? Sorry. I thought everyone knew. Well-ehm.. That's Migelo. He's a Bangaa. And Bangaa's are well.. A race that lives among us humans." I smiled at Vaan as he tried to explain things to me in the best way he could, but it wasn't easy for me. I cant remember seeing this kind of race before, it was all really confusing to me. After our little convresation, We walked over to the store and Vaan sat down on a low wall to the right of the door. "So, what's your plan from here on? You don't seem to know much of the city, do you?"  
"Nope, but maybe I will once I explore the place for a bit." I could see Vaan smile at me before he continued to speak. "All right. And what will you do after that? Do you have a place to go to?" Coming to think of it, Vaan seemed to have a point. "To tell you the truth, I really don't know, Vaan." Before I could say another word, Vaan interrupted me. "Well then, your staying with us for the night. No objections!" At first I had wanted to turn down the offer Vaan gave me, but if I did then where would I go? Staying with Vaan seemed to be my better option, and I gladly took it. "So, its settled then. Meet me back here in a couple of hours, and Ill show you where we stay." I simply nodded and waved my goodbye's to Vaan, as I walked of into the city.

The city seemed to be very much alive at this hour. Children were running around everywhere and there were market stalls full of items with merchants behind it selling the most wondrous things. I took a look around in a few of the shops, until I had enough of the crowd and walked over to some kind of bar called "The Sandsea". Once I got myself inside, I let my eyes scan the room before me. There seemed to be a balcony at the northern end of the room with right beneath it, a bar. Scattered around the room were round brown tables with matching wooden chairs around them. To the opposite side of the bar was a message board with some kind of weird "hunts" upon it. I decided not to give it to much thought and found myself a table atop of the balcony. Upon the table were a few magazines and amongst them was a newspaper, which I decided to read first. The newspaper told me of the world I found myself in, which was called Ivalice. Ivalice divided by a few leading country's, the most powerful one was called the Empire of Archadia. The Empire was led by an Emperor called Gramis Solidor. It seemed that Ivalice was in some kind of power struggle at this moment. This was quite heavy stuff to read so I decided upon some lighter reading about Sky-pirates. But the magazine I read didn't make sense to me either. The term Sky-pirates was a collection name for people who stole from the Empire using airships to get away. Some of the pictures in this magazine actually made me laugh and I enjoyed reading it, until I noticed a tall woman with rabbits ears approach my table. She wore a black leather top with black shorts and grey metal boots ending in high heels. Upon her head she wore a silver helmet and had a white ponytail coming from behind her. I decided not to give the ears to much thought, she was probably from another race just like that Migelo guy. Once she reached my table, she spoke up with a soft voice. "Excuse me, may I take this seat?"  
"Of course." She gave me a glimmer of a smile as she sat down and held her right hand out towards me. "My name is Fran."  
"I'm Stella, pleased to meet you." At this she simply nodded and focussed on a poster on the wall behind me. After talking to her for a while, I found out that she was from an all female race called the Viera. She seemed a bit sad when she talked of her people, but the sadness faded away once a young man approached our table. He had short dark blonde hair and wore a lot of colorful earrings. His hazel eyes seemed to be his most outstanding feature as his clothes seemed to be rather simple. He wore a white shirt with a sand colored body warmer upon it and a black set of pants and shoes. On his dark brown belt was an empty gun holster, which made me wonder if it was just a fashion statement or.. "Fran, its about time we make our leave." Fran nodded at the man and said her goodbye's to me. I could see her make her way towards the exit, but the man didn't follow her. I looked up to him and spoke up. "Can I help you?" The man seemed to be lost in thoughts for a moment, before blinking a few times and speaking up. "Some words of caution, there are people who would gladly take advantage of woman such as you. Lay low for a little while and you should be just fine." With that the man winked and walked of. To say I was confused was an understatement. What was he talking about? His words didn't make any sense! Why should I lay low? I couldn't lay a finger on it, so I decided to let it go for the time being. It was getting late after all. Time to meet Vaan, like I promised to.


	3. Chapter 3 Vayne Solidor, the Consul

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 3: Vayne Solidor, the Consul.

As I walked trough the city of Rabanastre, I couldn't help but wonder about the man's words again. Why would I need to lay low? And for who? I didn't feel like I needed to hide anything, this whole situation was just plain weird. He must have had me confused with somebody else, I was sure of it. Once I arrived at Michelo's sundries, I saw Vaan saying goodbye to the same girl I saw talking to Michelo earlier. The girl had white blonde hair that was braided into two ponytails and there were pink and blue ribbons all around them. She wore a blue and yellow short dress and wore knee length brown boots underneath that. She seemed like a nice girl to me, maybe she worked there too? When she left the shop, I decided to look up Vaan, who I found rather quickly. He was sitting on the exact same wall I left him on earlier. "Hey, Stella! How did the exploring go?"  
"It was fine. I read trough a few newspaper's, they gave me an idea about what was going on." I thought my words trough carefully as I answered Vaan. He didn't need to know about Fran and the strange man, now did he? "So I guess that by now you know of the Empire's cruelty." At this I nodded and let him continue his speech. "Well, that is why I need your help. With something really important."  
"What do you need me to do?"  
"I plan on reclaiming some of the people's treasures. They didn't belong to the Empire in the first place, so why not take it back?" I didn't like where he was going with this. "We will go into the palace and claim what is rightfully ours!" Vaan was in for a lot of trouble if he went trough with his plan, I could tell that much. "And you have this all planned out?."  
"Don't worry. I had some help from an old friend, trust me. I know what I'm doing. We will get into the palace trough the sewers once the great fete starts, the guards would be so focused on protecting the new Consul that they wont even notice us."  
"When does the fete start?"  
"In a few hours, why?"  
"That gives me some time to think about it, right?"  
"What? But Stella- wait!" With those words I ran off into the crowd of people before us. They seemed to be going to a speech the new Consul was about to give, at least as far as I could hear. Seemed like a good opportunity for me to judge whether the Empire was really as bad as all that.

Once I reached a clearing before a huge and beautiful cathedral, I sat down upon one of the nearby stairs and listened to some soldier as he spoke to the crowd of people before him. "We will have order! I give you your new Consul. His Imperial Highness, Lord Vayne Solidor, Commandant of the Archadian Empire's western Ar- Your Excellency!" The soldier seemed to freak out once he saw that the Consul, Vayne, had started walking up to a platform before the crowd of people. The man had long black hair, piercing blue eyes and wore clothes befitting his stature. Vayne looked like any other royal would. Proud and foolhardly but something about him was familiar to me. I decided to ignore it and listened to his speech. "People of Rabanastre! Is it with hatred you look upon your Consul? With hatred you look upon the Empire?" At this the crowd seemed to scream up inaudible words. "There was little point in asking.. But know this: I harbor no idle hopes of frustrating that hatred. Nor shall I ask your fealty. That is the due of your fallen King, and rightly so. King Raminas loved his people. Strove to bring you peace. His was a rule worthy of your devotion. Even now he remains among you. Protecting you. His ardor for the peace and weal of Dalmasca falters not. I would ask only that you do your King honor. Together let us embrace the peace his Majesty would surely desire. Two years now divide us from war's bitter end. Yet still, its shadow looms over all. Stifling the infant peace. A fall only you may cast off! Archive but this one thing and your hatred of me and of the Empire, will grieve me not! I will stand fast. I will endure your hatred, suffer your slings and arrows. I will defend Dalmasca! Here I will pay my debt! I swear it now! Though King Raminas and Lady Ashe be gone, they stand ever at the side of their people. In honoring peace, you do honor to their memory and to Dalmasca. What I ask, I ask plain. My hopes now rest with you." With those last words, he put his right hand over his heart and bowed down to the people before him. The people were now completely devoid of any hatred towards him and cheered vigorously. This wasn't right. How could they cheer to the people that kept them in such a bad state? Vaan was right, they didn't deserve any of their treasure. I began walking down the pair of stairs and stopped to look back at Vayne one last time before leaving. He seemed to be talking to Michelo, who did nothing but honor him. I sighed and walked away from the stairs. I know Michelo did not want to do this anymore then everyone else, but it seemed like he did not have much of a choice. As I stalked trough the crowd, I could almost swear that Vayne's eyes were upon me. But once I turned around, he was gone. After a while of walking around in the city, I found Vaan sitting on a wall near the local weapon shop. As I started moving towards him he immediately smiled and stood up. "Stella! Were did you go all of the sudden? I tried to run after you, but.."  
"Don't worry. I was watching the Consul's speech."  
"You too?" At this I nodded. Seems like I had just missed Vaan, but it didn't matter. I was back now, wasn't I? "Well, have you thought about my offer?"  
"Yep. I've decided to help you, if you promise to be careful. I'm up for a bit of adventure." At that Vaan's eyes seemed to light up, and he could hardly contain his excitement. "Great! That means I didn't buy this thing for nothing."  
"Buy wha-" Before I could even finish my sentence, Vaan pulled out a beautiful white Katana from behind him. The hilt was covered with a white ribbon and hanging on the ends of it were protective trinkets. The blade itself shone brightly in the sun, and was covered with 3 colorful gems. It was so.. perfect. "Vaan, I cant take that. It must have cost a fortune.."  
"Well, your going to need it, trust me. I hope you know how to use it." With that he pushed the hilt into my hand. Surprisingly enough, it felt light as a feather. "Think your ready for this?" I stared at my blade for a little while longer, before placing it onto my belt. "Ready as ill ever be. Let's go."

* * *

A/N: Vayne has finaly showed up. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4 The Sewers, Palace and Pirates

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 4: The Sewers, Palace and Pirates.

During our walk to Lowtown, Vaan told me some things about himself. He was 17 years old, and he was an orphan. His parents died because of a plague that was under the people a few years ago. After that, he and his older brother Reks moved in with a friend of their parents. When I asked him about Reks, he told me that he got killed in the war two years ago. Vaan was so young, but already he had been trough more then anyone could imagine. I just hoped that by helping him get the treasures, he would be a bit more happy. Once we reached Low town, Vaan told me he had to pick up something at his friends place. His friend was called Old Dalan, and for good reason too. When we entered his home, Dalan immediately asked us to walk over to him, and so we did. "Oh ho! So you've got a Sunstone, have you?" At that Vaan nodded and showed a bright yellow stone to Dalan. "Well then, hand it over m'boy. And I'll use it to give the Crescent stone back its Magicks, like I promised. But now, you'll be wanting to know how to sneak into the palace, eh?" That was the understatement of the year.. After playing around with the two stones in his hand, Old Dalan continued his speech. "First, you go to Storehouse five, you know the one. Two doors she has inside. Now the right, takes Vaan Ratsbane to his territorial hunting grounds in the sewers bottom, but that's not the way you'll go. No, you'll take the left door. Down into the Garamsythe waterway. The waterway leads to a stair, the stair to the Palace cellars. That's your way in. But don't go counting your gil just yet, m'boy. Getting into the palace was the easy part. The way into the treasury is carefully hidden. That's where this Cresent stone comes in." Old Dalan handed over a blue shining stone to Vaan, and continued to speak as he did so. "The Magicks it bears can open the hidden door into the treasury, you see. Listen, Vaan, for these words I shall speak are most important, and not to be forgotten. Do you understand? Good. "The signet yearns for sunstone's strength, to light the clouded way." Once in the palace you'll find the signet tile. Very important. Give to it the sun's power, and it will light your path. Very well, then. Oh, a warning: Be aware that if you're caught, you'll spend the rest of your short lives rotting in the Nalbina dungeons. So look sharp, m'boy. And don't go running off before your ready. Plans freshly hatched have a habit of tumbling from the nest, straight into the hunter's stew pot." At that Old Dalan laughed until he burst out into a coughing fit. This whole conversation has been.. interesting, to say the least. But at least we now knew what we were up against.

Once we arrived at the storage house, Kytes seemed to be waiting inside for us. "Hey, Vaan! I finally worked out how to get the door to the left side open! I hope there's somethin' in there besides rats.. I wanted you to go in first, so I waited for you to come before opening it. You just hang on here while I open it." I smiled at the young boys enthusiasm as he skipped over to the left door. He seemed to struggle a bit before the lock would open, but in the end he succeded. "Its open! Now we've got a whole 'nother place to explore! Oh, I almost forgot. Old Dalan told me to give you these, Stella. No tellin' what's down there, right? It might come in handy." As Kytes walked over to me, he grabbed a dark purple belt pouch from his pockets. In it were a few vials with some kind of strange red liquid in it. Seeing the look on my face, Kytes explained that it were healing Potions. Cool. After that Kytes left us alone in the storage house, locking the door behind us, and allowing Vaan to speak up. "We better get going then. Don't want to be late, now do we?" I nodded and followed him down the stairs, back into the sewers. After walking down a few stairs, we found ourselves within the Garamsythe waterway just like Dalan told us. The place looked exactly the same as the other sewer I woke up in, just a lot bigger. The walk trough the sewers was filled with easy battle's against the Rats, Bats and other vermin around. But after a while, we found the stairs leading us into the Palace cellars. After locking the door behind us, Vaan and I found ourselves in some kind of storage room, with Potions and supplies all around us. Vaan handed me some of the healing Potions out of a crate, saying that we might as we take them with us. I didn't really mind stealing things anymore. It was for a good cause, right? After walking trough a few hallways, we found ourselves in a huge room filled with people. It seemed that the staff was told to wait here until after the banquet had ended to clean things up. We tried looking for the way out nevertheless, and we easily found it. However, the way into the palace, was blocked by an Imperial Guard. I sighed to myself and turned to face Vaan. "So what now? We cant just wait for the banquet to end. The guards would be all over the place." Vaan seemed to be lost in thoughts for a while, but just when he was about to speak up, a big piglike guy approached us. If I were to recall the newspaper correctly, his race was called the Seeq. "Trying to go upstairs, aren't you? You're hungry, I don't blame ya. An empty stomach would make me want to crash the fete too." Vaan and I looked at each other for a while, and shrugged. Perhaps this Seeq could help us sneak out. "Look, I can give you the distraction you need to get upstairs. All you need to do is call out for the guard, then make a run for it." I thought about this plan for a moment, before turning to Vaan. "Could actually work. What do you think, Vaan?"  
"I say run!"  
"Wha-!" Vaan grabbed my hand and dragged me behind the Seeq as he called out. "Hey, bucket head!" The Imperial seemed to be irritated by that, and started walking over to the Seeq. Of this, we took our advantage and ran up the stairs. Before closing the door behind me, I looked back ad the Seeq to see him winking at me. Its good to know some people around still have a good heart. The halls we found ourselves in after closing the door, were packed with Imperial Soldiers. It seemed almost impossible to find the signet alone. Luckily, there were two of us. "Vaan, did your friend Dalan tell you where the signet would be?" At this he nodded. "O-Kay! Ill go and distract the guards. You should hurry and find this signet tile, all right?"  
"Stella- wait!" Too late. I was already running towards the nearest group of soldiers. I stopped a few meters away from them, then yelled out. "Over here! You guys should really pay attention, anyone could sneak in like this!" One of the Imperials growled and ran after me, the others were unfortunately soon to follow. After a while of running, I eventually lost the guards and found Vaan standing in the left end of the room. He seemed to have opened a passageway and told me to get in as soon as I could. Once inside, the wall quickly fell down behind us. "No turning back now." I nodded at Vaan's words and followed after him towards a door at the right side of the room. After pushing the switch next to it, the door opened and revealed the Palacr treasury before us. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There was so much gold around us, It almost blinded my eyes. As Vaan began stuffing his pockets with some of valuable's around, I walked over to a statue at the end of the room. The beautiful female statue looked like she could have been a goddess, and when I touched one of her hands, her chest opened. Revealing a magnificent orange stone. "Vaan, look." I handed the stone over to Vaan, who looked at it in aw. This surely would bring back a lot of money for the people. After looking at it for a little while, I could hear footsteps on the right of us, and saw a man approach us. I recognised him! This was the same guy I met at the Sandsea earlier. "So we meet again. That was quite the performance."  
"Who are you?" Vaan seemed to get irritated at the man's words and handed the stone back to me. I placed it into my belt pouch as I continued listening to the man's words. "I play the leading man, who else?"  
"Good day, Stella." From behind us I could see Fran enter the room. Seems like we weren't the only ones stealing from the Empire today. "Well then, ill take that." The man held his hand out to us, expecting me to hand over the stone. "No you wont, we found it! Its ours!" The man chuckled and took a step closer to Vaan. "And when I take it from you, it'll be mine." Before any of us could respond to that, we heard more footsteps coming from outside of the room, and before I knew it, Vaan and I ran trough the door at the back, running for our lives. We heard some people yelling at each other as we ran up a few stairs leading towards a balcony outside. Once we were nearing the end of it, Fran blocked the road with a Hoverbike. We turned back to try and run to other way, but as soon as we did, a few blasts came from the courtyard below us. "The Ifrit, eh? That's quite the entrance. Impeccable timing, if I didn't know better Id say they were waiting all along." Once the man finished talking, the airship Ifrit fired off another blast into the crowd of people below us. Vaan and I looked at each other and tried to run away until the man blocked our path. "Stop running!" Before we knew it, Imperial Soldiers stormed onto the balcony, ready to take us in. "Fran, let's move!" At that, Fran nodded and drove towards us, once she reached me, she wrapped her arm around my waist, urging me to get on. Once I was sitting behind her, I held onto her waist as the man and Vaan jumped on it as well. The Hoverbike seemed to have some problems flying away, probably because of the weight upon it. "Let go off me!" Vaan seemed to struggle as the man held on to his hand. Somewhere during our flight, Vaan fell of the bike and was now holding onto the man's arms. "Keep this up and I will! Fran, control this thing, will you!" "I dont know what's happening! Its not heeding me!"  
"I don't have time for this!" The bike started to turn and shake for all it was worth and after they spoke and Vaan seemed to slide deeper and deeper down. "I'm slipping!" Uh-oh! The bike was getting out of control, and after a few seconds, it crashed us into the ground.

* * *

A/N: Enter Sky-pirates.


	5. Chapter 5 Déjà Vu

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 5: Déjà vu.

Waking up in the Garamsythe waterway once more, was not on my to-do list for today. But this time, things seemed to be even worse. The place we crashed into was a mess, there was rubble all over the place and smoke still came out of Fran's hover bike. I sighed to myself as I stood up from my seat on the nearby stairs. How did we get into this mess.. Or better yet: How do we get out? As I walked over to the Fran, I knelt down to look at the bike before us. "What happened?"  
"Our hover didn't just drop- it disappeared." I gave Fran a confused look, what did she mean with disappeared? "The sky stone that kept it afloat vanished." What? How could a stone just vanish into tin air like that? It didn't make any sense. "Bah, forget it. Even if we could fly out of here, the Ifrit's playing with fire and I'd rather not get burned. We'll go the old-fashioned way." The man seemed to know a lot more about this whole ordeal then we did, it made me feel rather clueless. I stood up and walked back to the stairs behind me. I sat down and quickly spotted Vaan sitting before me. He seemed to be entranced by Fran somehow, I wonder why that was. "Not many Viera where you come from, thief?" The man's words broke Vaan's stare instantly. Vaan awkwardly stood up and apologised to Fran. "It's Vaan, Sorry."  
"Well, Fran is special in that she'd deign to partner with a Hume."  
"Oh? Like a sky pirate that chooses to steal trough the sewers?" Before anyone could respond to that, Vaan had already interrupted them. "Pirates? You're sky pirates? So you have an airship?"  
"It's Balthier." Ah, so that was his name. "Listen thief- Vaan. If you ever want to see your home again, you do exactly as I say. Myself, Fran, you and.."  
"Stella."  
"And Stella, We're working together now. Understood?"  
"So you know a way out?" Balthier turned to me, and smirked. "Of course I do. I'm the leading man." Right, that was really comforting.. I shook my head and looked over to Vaan, I could see that he was hesitating to go with our new "partners", given the fact that we were all after the same thing: The stone. "Don't even think you're getting it."  
"The thought never crossed my mind."

After our conversation had ended, we had started navigating our way out of the sewers. Even though it looked like the same place I been stuck at earlier, the maze seemed to be formed a little differently. During our walk, Vaan decided to speak up. "Soo.. Back at the Palace, the three of you seemed to recognize each other. Have you met before?"  
"We have. I met Fran earlier at this bar called the Sandsea. Balthier was there too, but I never catched his name while we were talking." Vaan scratched the back of his head and smirked. "I guess you can never expect how things turn out, huh?"  
"Ill say." Upon walking down a pair of stairs, I stopped abruptly. Before us lay the body's of 3 Imperial Guards, or so they seemed to be. As Balthier walked over to them, he knelt down and spoke up. "Insurgent's. Most likely they thought to take advantage of the lax watch while the fete's on, to feed the "good" Consul a length of steel before supper. I should think Vayne's used to such hospitality. Clever.. he used himself as the bait to draw them near, then send in the air brigade."  
"So he knew they were coming all along?" Balthier nodded at my question, as he continued his speech. "A fine, bloody banquet. I daresay I've soiled my cuffs.. If a dungeon's waiting for us at the end of the night, it had best have a change of wardrobe." I chuckled at his sarcasm and followed after Fran once she started moving again.

As we made our way trough this watery road called the sewers, we had to fight off quite a few Rats, Gigantoad's and Bats. Annoying as they were, we easily outnumbered them. The way ahead was relatively simple to follow, since it was only a one way path. It made me wonder if we were even going towards an exit, and not just a death end. Everyone was silent, and focussed on what was ahead of us, but that was only until we heard some people approach us from the left ledge above us. There seemed to be a group of Imperial Soldiers following after a young woman. She seemed quite strong as she pushed some of the Soldiers of the platform and ran closer to the ledge. She provoked them by slashing the water before her with her sword and spoke up. "Who would be next?" The Imperial's didn't seem to be fazed at all and were closing in on her slowly. Vaan apparently thought the same as I, and yelled up to her. "Jump down!" The girl was a bit startled at first, but after quickly considering her options, she decided to jump down. Vaan catched her as she fell, and set her down next to him. "She's not alone!" The Imperials yelled at each other and ran over towards us once they found a way down. "Our ranks grow by the hour." Fran unsheathed her bow as she walked forward towards us. Balthier smirked as he took out his gun. "And our troubles with them."

Once we knocked down the Imperial Soldiers, Vaan walked over to the girl and spoke up. "Are you all right?" The girl seemed to be a bit lost in thoughts as she looked over all of us, but answered him eventually. "Thank you." After talking to her for a little while we found out that her name was Amalia, and she was part of the resistance attacking the Palace earlier. "There were others with me.."  
"I'm sure they made it out all right." I smiled at her as I walked passed her to stand next to Balthier. But as I did, something weird happened. The stone in my belt pouch seemed to light up a bright orange, and once I took I out, it stopped. "Now isn't that impressive?"  
"You stole that?" Amalia asked in disbelief. "Yeah, we took it from the Palace treasury." Vaan seemed to be quite proud at our deed, but Amalia apparently wasn't. "Have you finished? When the guards don't report in, they're superiors will come looking for us." I agreed with Fran on that one. We had to keep moving. "You should come with us, its better then being out here on your own." Amalia seemed a bit insulted by Vaan's comment and started walking away as she spoke. "Very well then." I could see Balthier sigh at Vaan's words. "You have a lot to learn before we get started on your thievery." Vaan seemed to be utterly confused and spoke up once he saw Balthier walk away. "What does that mean?" Balthier ignored his question and walked over to were Amalia and I were sitting. Amalia was a young woman about my age, with sandy blonde hair and pearly grey eyes. She wore a white loose long sleeved shirt with golden bracelets and a pink skirt. Once Balthier had reached us, Amalia stood up and spoke. I shall accompany you until we find my companions, no longer."  
"We shall think of her as a guest then, lets get moving." I nodded at Balthier and stood up once I saw Fran approach. It was time to move.

As we kept walking trough the sewers, we eventually reached a large open area with a waterfall to the right of it. Once we reached the middle of the platform, the gate on the right side of the room closed and a few Flans dropped down from the ceiling. I decided to look up and saw some more Flans ready to drop on our heads. We all stepped to the side and quickly readied our weapons. The Flans surrounded us and had an evil smile plastered to their fluid faces. We decided to split up into pairs and killed 3 flans each. After the fight, the corpses of the Flans slid down the waterfall and I heard a gate to the right open. Once we all walked trough the gate, it closed itself instantly and steam came up from all around us. This area was quite alot bigger then the previous one, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. After a few seconds, a fireball shot out of nowhere, and Balthier pulled me out of its way. "Thanks." He smiled at me and handed me my sword. I saw the others take out their weapons as well, ready for battle. I unsheathed my Katana and looked around for an enemy until I spotted a horse like creature engulfed in flames. I was sure he had it out for me as he kept almost all of his attacks focused on me troughout the entire fight. After he was finally defeated he let out a loud yelp and turned into a fireball. But soon as we approached it, it flew away. I sat down on the ground and sighed. The steam seemed to have disappeared, and everyone was taking a breather until we heard someone yell from the platform to the left of us. "Stand where you are!" We all turned to the source of the voice and saw at least a dozen Imperial Soldiers standing above the waterfall with their bows aiming towards us. After a few seconds, Vayne walked over to the Imperials. Amalia tried to step forward with an angry look on her face, but was stopped by Balthier. "Now is not the time." I turned and faced Vayne who was looking back and forth between us until his eyes rested on mine. As we looked at each other, I couldn't help but get that familiar feeling once again. But our stare off was cut short when we heard the Imperials shout again. "Put your hands up!" I sighed and did as they asked.

As soon as we were shackled by the Soldiers, they led us back into Low town. Alot of people stared at us as we walked by, and I couldn't blame them. If I saw 5 strangers being escorted by the Consul and his Soldiers, even I would get curious. After a while of walking, the Imperials came to an halt and surrounded us, so we couldn't get away. "They think me to be some common thief!" Amalia commented, clearly she was angry about being treated this way. "Better then a common assassin." Balthier said as he leaned back against the wall behind us. We stood there until a few other Imperials came and started escorting Amalia away. "These people have done nothing wrong, release them!"  
"What are you doing?" Vaan asked her. "Don't interrupt. I'm thinking!" I sighed and felt an Imperial pull me away until I heard a familiar voice call out to us. "Wait! He didn't know what he was doing, you have to let him go! You have to!" I saw Penelo standing in the crowd trying to make her way over to us. Vaan smiled at her and spoke up. "Penelo! Sorry, dinner will have to wait." Vaan waved his hands up to Penelo, showing her his handcuffs. I could see tears forming in her eyes as she pushed away the Imperial and ran over to Vaan. However, before she could reach him, Balthier stopped her and handed her his handkerchief. "Here, keep this safe for me and I will return Vaan to you." Penelo clutched onto the handkerchief Balthier gave her and watched as the guards led us away.


	6. Chapter 6 Dungeons and Judges?

Final Fantasy XII OC Story

Chapter 6: Dungeons and.. Judges?

The sewers didn't seem all that bad anymore compared to the place we were thrown in this time. Nalbina dungeons.. The smell alone could kill a man, it reeked of death. After we were brought in here, we were uncuffed and pushed inside. The cell wasn't closed off, the entire dungeon however, was. I looked around on the floor and saw some bones and a Bangaa corpse lying before me. Next to the Bangaa lay Vaan. The Imperials had knocked him down on our way over here, saying he was being too much trouble otherwise. I just hope he wont be in too much pain once he wakes up. I sighed and sat down on a small ledge in the cell next to Balthier. "Where's Fran?"  
"She's off trying to find us a way out. Its not even a proper dungeon, they just sealed off the bottom level of the fortress." I sighed and smiled. "I wish I had my Katana. I'm not much of a fighter without it.."  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, you've got potential. Besides, I'm the leading man."  
"Which means?" Balthier smirked at my question and stood up as if to proof a point, but before he could speak, Vaan woke up. I walked over to him and tried to help him stand up. Once he was, he rubbed the back of his head and spoke up. "Ugh.. Where are we?"  
"Prison, where else? More like a dungeon but its really all the same." Vaan nodded and walked over to the nearby ledge, but tripped over the Bangaa corpse on his way there. When he tried the stand back up again, he saw the Bangaa and yelled out in surprise. I chuckled a bid at that, Vaan was still a kid at heart. "Relax, its just a corpse. Jump at every little thing down here and you'll wear yourself out. Take a look around, were not the first they've thrown down here." Vaan nodded and turned to leave, but was stopped by Balthier one last time before taking off. "Remember what curiosity killed. Just a friendly word of advice. This is all the water we've got. I'd save your strength if I were you." Vaan nodded and once he had left us to explore the dungeon, I began to notice a slight humming in my head. The humming got worse the longer I sat there but went away as soon as Balthier spoke up. "..You okay?" I felt his hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine." I stood up and turned to face Balthier. "I'm going to go see how Vaan's doing." As soon as I started walking, I felt a hand on my right arm holding me back. "Not alone, you're not. I'm the leading man, remember?" I saw him smirk at me as he pulled me forward towards the open area. I wonder what was in store for us next..

Yyaaaaaarrgh!

"What the hell was that?" I turned to face Balthier, who looked just as confused as I was, before speaking up. "Lets check it out." I nodded and ran after him. After a few minutes of running, Balthier stopped walking and hid behind a nearby wall, stopping me from almost running forward. "Sshh.. Look." Balthier pointed towards the small arena before us. I didn't know what he meant, until I saw three Seeq's making their way into the arena. The one in the middle dragged Vaan with him. "We have to help him!" Balthier nodded and held three fingers up, counting down from three to one. At one he ran towards the arena and stood on top of the ledge above it. I walked over to stand next to him, and listened to him speak. "Something stinks in here, all right! I changed my mind. This is no dungeon, its a sty." The Seeq started to mumble something inaudible until Balthier interrupted him and spoke once more. "I said your the one that stinks ham shanks! Hear me now?" At that I chuckled and jumped down into the cage, with Balthier following closely behind me. I helped Vaan get to his feet once more and made him drink one of the healing potions I hid from the guards. "You all right, Vaan?" At this he nodded and faced the Seeq's before us. Once the Seeq's realised what I did, the three of them charged us with all they had. Balthier and I quickly took down our contestants and helped Vaan take the strongest Seeq out. Once they were knocked out, we heard a gate to the left of us open. All the prisoners that had previously watched us fight, had now disappeared back into their cells. There seemed to be Imperials on their way down here, and I couldn't help but stand there and wonder why. "Come on!" Vaan said as he pulled me behind a nearby wall. From behind the wall I could see an Imperial walk over to the head of the stairs and take his helmet off as he scanned the Arena. After finding nothing, he turned around and face the group of Bangaa's joining him. "Great, they just don't give up do they?"  
"Who are 'they'?" Balthier grunted in frustration as he kept watching the scene before us. "Bounty hunters. Seems like a good time to leave, before they spot us." I nodded and turned around once I hear the gate behind us being lifted. Behind it stood Fran. "Trough the oubliette there seems to be a way out, only.."  
"Only you sense the mist." Fran nodded and helped me get up as I ducked out from under the gate. Once the gate was closed again, we turned back to the conversation the bounty hunters where having with one of the Imperial Soldiers. There were four Bangaa's standing together, but there was only one talking. I could not hear his name, but I did see what he looked like. This money hungry Bangaa had a fitting green skin tone and wore alot of piercings around his lower lip. He also seemed to be in a very bad mood. "What did you call me? Say that again!" The Imperial seemed furious at something the Bangaa said, but the Bangaa simply smirked and spoke. "What? You couldn't hear? I merely said that the lot of you are incompetent fools. If you've the sky pirate in your hands, then where is he?"  
"You'd have done better, Ba'Gamnan? By your own words, it was the Imperial army who caught this sky pirate of yours. We've done your job for you! We don't require the assistance of filthy head hunters. The Empire will restore order here." Ba'Gamnan looked around in the area, and once he noticed the Imperial stopped talking he spoke up again. "Eh? What's that you say now? Maybe Ill whet my blade on you, before I kill Balthier." At this the other Imperials nearby all placed a hand upon their still sheathed swords, ready to attack the head hunter if needed. "That's enough, Ba'Gamnan." The bickering of Ba'Gamnan and the Imperial was interrupted by a dark gloomy voice. This person seemed to be an Imperial, yet his armor looked different, more fancy. He walked down the pair of stairs and stood in between the Imperial and the head hunter. "Who's he?" I asked Fran. "A Judge."  
"Judge?" Balthier nodded and spoke. "The self-proclaimed guardians of law and order in Archadia. They're the elite guard of house Solidor. Which effectively makes them the commanders of the Imperial army. If you ask me, they're more executioners then Judges. Not a friendly lot, at any rate. What are they doing here?" I looked back to the scene before us and sighed. It seemed like the Judge had started talking again. "The Emperor is willing to overlook race for his more talented servants. However, those that do not show respect will receive none in kind."  
"Your honour.."  
"You travel freely trough our lands because the Emperor wills it, am I correct?" At this Ba'Gamnan gasped for a few seconds, but decided to let the whole thing go and went on the search for his bounty himself. The Judge ignored Ba'Gamnan as he walked of and headed down the stairs to the left. The Imperial followed closely behind him. "Where is the Captain?"  
"We have him in solitary, your honour. We're ready to begin our interrogation." I was beginning the feel sorry for this Captain. Whoever he was, I was sure he didn't deserve the kind of interrogation he was about to receive. "Time for the hare to follow the fox." Vaan turned to Balthier with a confused look on his face, but before he could speak up, Fran did. "The magicks binding the door to the oubliette are quite strong. Too strong. Even for my talents."  
"That's why well get them to open it for us." Vaan still did not seem to understand the situation at all, and questioned Balthier again. "How is going deeper into this place-"  
"What's wrong? You don't trust her? Viera's noses are sharp. If she says there's a way out, there's a way out." Vaan turned around to face me, as if he was asking "What do I do now ?" I smiled and put a hand on Fran's arm. "I believe you." She smiled a glimmer of a smile and began walking towards our destination.

As we walked after the Judge and his party, Fran suddenly backtracked once we reached a hallway with a small room to the left of it. "Look." We walked back to meet her and looked into the room. "Ah! The prison repository of wrested relics and raiment's." Balthier said resting his hands on his hip. "So our things are in here?" Vaan asked. "That's what I said" Balthier told him. I smirked and started looking for our goods. Once we found all of them, we quickly headed back to the Judge's trail. We had to run to make it, because the wall on the end of the hallway was slowly sliding down. Once we all made it to the other side, I heard the wall hit the ground with a large thud. I saw Balthier run forward, but he quickly walked back once he saw what was out there. "There are more turnkeys than cutpurses down here. I've had my fill of chains. Lets tread lightly, shall we?" Vaan and I nodded in agreement and followed after the sky pirate once more.

After walking around for a little while, with luckily no Imperial encounters, we found the Judge and his Magisters near the oubliette. One of the Magisters cast a weird spell, and the door opened right away. We decided to wait until all of the magisters walked trough it, before going in ourselves. Once we did, we seemed to have reached a huge arena with a large hole in the middle. We decided to hide behind one of the nearby pillars, and listen to the Judge as he spoke to the only prisoner hanging there in a cage. As the Judge approached the Captain, he took of his helmet. I could not see what he looked like as he had his back turned to us, but I could see that he was a blonde. "You have grown very thin, Basch. Less then a shadow, less then a man. Sentenced to death and yet you live. Why?"  
"To silence Ondore. How many times must I say it?"  
"Is that all?"  
"Why not ask Vayne himself? Is he not one of your masters?" The Judge cringed at that, but nevertheless continued his speech. "We've caught a leader of the Insurgence. She's being brought from Rabanastre." Captain Basch sighed and turned his head away from the Judge. "Such a faithful hound to cling so to a fallen kingdom."  
"Better than throwing it away."  
"Throwing it away? As you threw away our homeland?" Our homeland? Did the Judge know the Captain personally? I didn't understand anything about their conversation, but was happy to find out that the Judge had left us during my thoughts. Once he was completely out of sight, Fran walked over to a control panel before the Captain's cage and started examining it. I walked over to the other side slowly, and unknowingly held my eyes on the Captain. The man looked like he hadn't eaten anything decent in years, his blonde hair was quite long, as was his beard. But one thing about him made me wonder. He obviously had spend a long time in this cage, but his blue eyes still shined with hope. Once he noticed we were near, he started to speak up. "Who's there?" Balthier ignored him and walked over to where Fran was standing. "This the place?"  
"The Mist is flowing trough this room. It must be going somewhere."  
"Hmm." After she finished her speech, the Captain spoke to Balthier again. "You! You're no Imperials. Please, you must get me out-"  
"Its against my policy to speak with the dead. Especially when they happen to be kingslayers." Wait, what? Kingslayer? Now that I found hard to believe. "I did not kill him."  
"Is that so? Glad to hear it." Captain Basch shook his head and looked around in the Arena and once he spotted me, he spoke up again. "Please, get me out. For the sake of Dalmasca." At this Vaan became infuriated and jumped upon his cage. "Dalmasca?!"  
"Vaan calm down! They'll hear us." Vaan ignored my warning and kept on yelling at the Captain. "What do you care about Dalmasca? Everything that's happened is because of you! Everyone that's died, every single one! Even my brother.. You killed my brother!" I could hear Balthier groan out in frustration at this. "Quiet! The guards will hear." Too late. I could already hear some of the guards approaching. Fran seemed to have noticed this too. "I'm dropping it." At that she flipped a lever next to Basch's cage and quickly jumped onto the cage herself. Balthier ran over to me and put his right arm around my waist. "Pirates without a sky. You better hold on tight." I could see him smirk at me as he ran up to the ledge and jumped on top of the cage himself. I held onto him and wondered where we would end up this time.

* * *

A/N: That was Chapter 6, Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Chapter 7 Falling into Pieces

**Final Fantasy XII OC Story**

**Chapter 7: Falling into Pieces.**

Once upon a time in a kingdom in a faraway past, there was a beautiful Palace with a huge rosy garden. Within that garden, a young Prince and his best friend loved to play hide and seek together. The Prince, though small for his age, had a mind far beyond his years. He wore a white dress shirt with pants to match, combined with a black pair of boots. His hair was cut short and white as the Moon, while his face shone bronze as the Dalmascan sands. "Hey, where did you go?! That's not fair you run too fast!" Said the girl as she ran from place to place trying to spot her friend. The girl was older then the Prince by only a few years, yet adored her playmate with all her heart. She wore a lavender long sleeved jumpsuit, with dark purple boots on her feet. Her long dark curls cascaded all the way down to her ankles. The one thing most recognisable about her, was her ivory white skin that reflected the light of the Moon. The girl sighed in frustration and stopped to catch her breath. "What does running have to do with hide and seek anyway?" Whispered the Prince from his hiding place. "Because.." The girl started tiptoeing around the garden, lips curling into a smirk. "Because..?" "Because.. I got you!" The girl pounced her friend onto the ground, giving the poor Prince a good scare as they rolled down the garden. After laughing their hearts out, the Prince recollected his voice and sat up next to the girl. "Don't scare me like that, Sariel.."

* * *

"Stella? Wake up, Stella!" "Huh? Wha.." Ouch, my head hurt like hell. I didn't know whether it was because of the weird dream I just had, or the fall down. Who was this Sariel anyway? It felt like I knew her my entire life.. "My apologies for the rough landing, but I'm sure you'll forgive me, given the circumstances." Said Balthier as he pulled me up to my feet. "I suppose I owe you at least that." I smiled and walked over to the cage, where my Katana lay on the ground. Looking around, I could already tell this place was going to be far from pleasant. The ground was a dark greasy grey, and the only light in the pit came from the coliseum far above us. There was rubble all around the cage, which made me ponder about how fast our ride down actually was. I ducked down to pick up my Katana, but to my surprise found there was already a hand upon it. It was Captain Basch, out of chains, and out of his cage, handing the sword over to me slowly. I smiled and mouthed a silent thank you to him, and I could almost see him smile back, until he was interrupted by a harsh wind by my side knocking him down. The wind turned out to be Vaan, pounding into the Captain like there was no tomorrow, saying things as: Traitor! And: You killed my brother! That was until Balthier pulled him back by the hem of his vest throwing him on the ground behind us. "Spare us your quiddities." "Yeah, but- But he's a.." "A traitor, I know. Stay here and fight, if you want." Balthier turned around to face the Captain, but raised an eyebrow when he spotted me helping him stand up. "If you can walk, let's go." "You're taking him with us?!" Vaan stood up and walked over to Balthier, with an utterly confused look on his face. "We could use another sword arm." The Captain stood up with a grunt, and took a few steps forward. "And you have it." I could see that Vaan wasn't all too happy about this, but I kind of agreed with Balthier on this one. None of us could really tell what we were going to run into down here, so we had best go together. I walked over to Vaan and put my hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down a bit, before following after the others, down into the passage.

After a few minutes of walking, we found ourselves a big square room with a stairwell leading downwards. It was still quite hard to see where we were going, since the lights were still at a minimum, but we eventually managed to reach the end of the stairwell and saw a blue-skinned Bangaa sitting near a blackened gate and a switch panel located at the right side of him. Once I approached the panel, the Bangaa began to speak. "Don' get many visitors down here. You've come scavengin' fer odds and ends, have you?" "Quite the opposite actually, were trying to find a way out of here. Do you know how we can lift the gate?" "Oh, the gate you say? There's a switch just back up those stairs." At this Vaan nodded and ran back up. When we heard him yell that the switch was broken, the Bangaa handed me some kind of weird tube. "The fuse in that little contraption up the stairs must be blown.. Fortunately, you can use that to fix it right up. Made that tube-fuse from parts I found down in these very tunnels. It's good as any you'll find, and better 'an most, mark my work" "Thank you." I smiled at the Bangaa and ran up to Vaan, while the others waited downstairs with the Bangaa. Once he replaced the tube-fuse, the lights sprung on and the gate lifted itself up. Vaan and I rushed to join the others back down again, but before I walked after the others, the Bangaa spoke to me one last time. "I see ye got the gate open. Oughta be able to look fer all manner of ways out, now. While the lights are on, Barheim passage ain't so bad. But let the charge drop, and some fierce beasts start comin' out in the dark. Opening a gate fer instance can drop the power by 30%. Who knows how many more of these gates they got down here. If ye look fer these switchboards, you oughta be able to make yer way. But be careful, lass. And take this." The Bangaa handed me a strange compass that looked like a watch, but when I opened it up, I could see the power gauge of Barheim passage. "Thank you, si.." I tried to thank the Bangaa, but when I opened my mouth, I noticed that the Bangaa was fast asleep. I smiled and ran further into the passage, catching up with the others as soon as I could.

Once I caught up with the others, I saw a electric spider feeding itself on one of the nearby wires exposed in a corner. When it bit down on one of them, the power gauge dropped tremendously. "Hey! Who turned out the lights? One of those?" I heard Vaan say as he looked up to the lights above us. "I've heard of these: Mimics. They disguise themselves as all manner of things, then strike when you're least wary. Some of them have a fondness for energy I'm told. They gorge themselves on the stuff till there's naught left." "So.. ehm, what happens then?" "Lights out. And it's worse in the dark. Much worse. So, let them get too close to one of those conduits and they'll suck it dry. But don't worry. It'll give the energy back, if you ask nicely. Sticking it with a sword helps too." "Clock's ticking, guys! We better dispose of it fast." Balthier smirked at my words, and walked past me on his way over to a group of Mimics. "Indeed it is. You'll have to show me your handy-dandy device after the fight I'm afraid." I smirked back at that and unsheathed my Katana, ready for battle.

* * *

**A/N: There's Chapter 7! Enjoy.**


End file.
